Pending ordinances could aid bungalows

Group's meeting also covered fate of Robbie St. oak

JENNIFER FRIEDBERG, Chronicle Correspondent |
February 20, 2007

Members of Save the Bungalows learned at a meeting on Sunday about ordinances working their way through Houston City Council that would enable residents to restrict lot subdivision and setback from the street.

Save the Bungalows is a group formed mainly by Heights residents in April 2006, with the goal of saving older, smaller homes from being torn down for new development.

Group founder Sheila Sorvari said she was glad to see residents from neighborhoods other than just the Heights at the meeting. She also would like other inner-loop neighborhoods to join together to preserve Houston's older homes.

"All of us in urban neighborhoods are battling the same battles," she said. "We have so much in common and a lot to gain by doing it together."

Mark Sterling, Save the Bungalows' director of government relations and a member of the Houston Planning Commission's subcommittee on Neighborhood Preservation, explained the ordinances the subcommittee has proposed to council to the Save the Bungalows group, which could help with its mission.

The ordinances apply to non-deed restricted areas inside Loop 610.

The existing ordinance to protect against lot subdivision is the prevailing lot size ordinance.

If 75 percent of the houses on a block are the same size, the residents can apply for protection that would require all lots to remain the size of the majority of lots on the block.

Because many blocks are diverse in their lot sizes, this rule precluded many from protection.

The proposed minimum lot size ordinance instead would come up with a minimum lot size by adding together the square footage of lots on a block — largest to smallest — until 60 percent of the total square footage of a block is reached.

Whatever the size is of the lot that caps off 60 percent or greater of the total block area would become the minimum lot size.

The new rule would allow any two opposing block faces to qualify for some level of protection. A block face is comprised of all the land on one side of a block of a street.

Sterling said under the existing ordinance, residents have to do much of the legwork to find out if they qualify, whereas under the new ordinance the Planning Department would calculate each block's minimum lot size.

Sorvari said the new ordinance would improve upon the old ordinance, which "was made convoluted and burdensome to make it harder for us to do this as homeowners. This is simplified and puts the onus on the Planning Department to crunch the numbers."

Building line

A change to the building line ordinance, which has been working its way through city council in conjunction with the lot size ordinance, would create a standard build-to line for a block using the same formula as the proposed lot size ordinance.

Sterling said he believes, visually, the building line ordinance would have the greater impact of standardizing the look of a street.

Residents said they were concerned with the logistics of getting Planning Department approvals on minimum lot size applications if the ordinance change passes.

Sterling said the new law would have the potential to increase the number of applications because more people would qualify and the Planning Department would need to figure out how to deal with the influx.

If the ordinance changes pass council, Sorvari said, "we will do everything in our power to get the word out," so that more blocks can apply for protection.

Only one person now handles applications for the existing prevailing lot size ordinance. Sterling said an application sat for 18 months in one instance.

Vicki Davis of East Sunset Heights said there is an application from her neighborhood for East 26th Street between Princeton Street and Link Road to receive protection under the existing ordinance, which has been sitting in the Planning Department since September.

"The city is this huge bureaucracy," said Sterling, adding if the ordinance changes pass, there might still be kinks as far as implementation. "I'm not here to tell you they're going to be slick as a whistle."

However, once an application has been submitted in full, development would be halted until the application is processed.

Tree preservation

The group also discussed protection of old trees.

Gary Meyer and Juan M. Nieto of the Stude 1 neighborhood said they are concerned about an old oak tree in the 1000 block of Robbie Street on a lot of an abandoned bungalow recently bought by a developer for redevelopment to two town homes.

The tree is located on city property on the area between the sidewalk and the street, but Meyer said the developer told them, "the tree has got to go because we're going to put a driveway in here."

Sorvari said it is illegal to cut down city trees, but developers get away with it all the time because there is only one urban forester to enforce the law and the developers don't seem to mind paying the fine.

"We are becoming a city where every tree is in a park," Sorvari said. "(Developers) are against trees that get in the way of profit. It's up to us to hold their feet to the fire because the city won't enforce it."

Victor Cordova, the city forester, said there are eight foresters who work under his authority.

"It is illegal to remove a tree on city property without a permit and we have to issue a permit," Cordova said.

If a tree is removed, "there is a fine. We do have the ability to issue a citation. Then it's up to the judge to issue the amount (of the fine)."

A municipal court judge has the authority to fine any amount from a penny to $500 for each tree that is cut down illegally on city property. The responsible individual also can be ordered to replace the tree.

The fine money goes into the city tree fund, which pays to buy and plant new trees. A list of approved types of trees for replanting is in the city code.

"We have no authority when it comes to private property," Cordova said.